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Irish Independent
17-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
RTÉ standing by €500,000 tender contract for supply of branding
The tender contract issued by the broadcaster is looking for contractors to 'produce and supply branded promotional goods [merchandise and branded material] to promote its brand, services, programmes and events to audiences as part of a framework. The estimated spend is for the potential term of the contract.' The value of the contract, which mentions paper cups, stationary, T-shirts, notebooks, pencils and ballpoint pens, is up to €500,000. The broadcaster's finances have been under intense focus since the 2023 payments scandal, and RTÉ is under some pressure to cut costs in exchange for €725m in government supports. A spokesman for RTÉ defended the planned spend on merchandise, saying: 'This is not a tender for branded pens, pencils and T-shirts.' He said that RTÉ is inviting submissions from tenders for 'a range' of promotional products 'required to promote its brand, services, programmes and events to audiences'. 'The tender refers to a five-year period and the amount referred to represents an estimate, not a committed spend,' the spokesman said. The spokesman said that the tender would include branded clothing or display items, including RTÉ branded umbrellas for presenters and branded back drops. T-shirts, water bottles, stationery and mugs that would ultimately be given to the public at RTÉ events such as the National Ploughing Championships, the BT Young Scientist or the RTÉ Choice Music Prize would also be included. The contract would also cover 'merchandise at outside broadcasts, particularly for our radio services, and branded clothing to be worn by RTÉ staff'. 'In procuring these items, it is vital that RTÉ delivers the best possible value for money when ordering these items. This framework will consolidate the purchasing of items, previously procured by RTÉ teams locally by way of quotation in line with RTÉ's procurement policy,' the spokesman said. RTÉ's spending is set to come under further scrutiny, as the broadcaster is one of the first organisations to be brought before the newly formed Oireachtas Media Committee. Oireachtas committees were finally formed and able to meet after a long delay caused by the protracted speaking rights row. Alan Kelly, the Labour TD and chairman of the media committee, has already met with RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst. Two weeks ago, Mr Kelly and Mr Bakhurst met to discuss a controversy over a partially failed IT system that cost €3.6m. It emerged this month that RTÉ had written down €3.6m. The IT project, which was bought with some of the proceeds of RTÉ selling off some of its land in Dublin 4, was designed to replace five outdated finance and HR systems. The money lost on the IT system only emerged in the wake of the Arts Council controversy over its failed IT system. Media Minister Patrick O'Donovan had sought details from organisations under his remit about whether or not any of them had similar scandals. The RTÉ IT system then became public knowledge after correspondence between the broadcaster and the department was released under Freedom of Information law to The Currency. 'The latest revelations from RTÉ of a massive writedown on a failed IT system demands serious attention,' Mr Kelly said earlier this month. In particular, Mr Kelly pointed to his time on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) during the RTÉ payments saga and questioned why the issue of the HR system was not brought to the committee's attention then. 'At the time of the controversy in 2023, I and others asked at the PAC committee: was there anything else we needed to know. Why wasn't this brought up then?' Mr Kelly asked. 'What about RTÉ's commitments on openness and transparency with the public? There are a number of questions that must be answered.' At the meeting with the broadcasting chief, Mr Kelly said they also discussed 'future plans for RTÉ, the restructuring programme and a range of legacy issues in the organisation'.
Irish Independent
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Dubliner Oscar Despard leads team to victory in University Challenge final
The 22-year-old from Portobello led Christ's College Cambridge to the final of the competition, where they achieved 175 points to beat the team from Warwick University by just five points. His team were presented with their trophy by award-winning actor Ian McKellen, who congratulated the Dubliner and his team on their win. Mr Despard, who is studying molecular biology at Cambridge and has begun a PhD focusing on proteostasis – how cells maintain a balance of making and breaking down proteins – using cryo-electron tomography, has said taking part in the programme was a childhood dream. Speaking to the Irish Independent last week, Mr Despard said: 'I watched the show a lot growing up, with my mother in particular. So when I ended up at the University of Cambridge, it was a natural thing to try because I thought it would be quite interesting. 'I went about setting up a quiz society at Christ's College to administer the college's participation. We ran a two-round selection process, starting with an online quiz that people could complete in their own time. 'Then we invited the 10 best scorers to take part in an in-person round on the buzzer.' Mr Despard earned nine H1s in his Leaving Cert from Sandford Park School in Ranelagh, and was awarded the best individual prize at the BT Young Scientist exhibition in 2020. His mother, Professor Niamh Moran, is a scientist at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He said his family were 'very excited' to see him compete as he revealed that his team shared a spreadsheet of more than 200 knowledge areas to revise ahead of the notoriously difficult quiz. 'I got to read all of Shakespeare, which I probably wouldn't have done otherwise,' he said. 'And we did a surprising amount of video game revision – they've broadened the question topics in recent years.'
Irish Independent
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
‘I got to read all of Shakespeare' – meet the Dubliner leading Cambridge as captain in ‘University Challenge' final
Today at 21:30 Dubliner Oscar Despard, from Portobello, will captain Christ's College Cambridge in the final of TV quiz show University Challenge – and live out a childhood dream in the process. 'I watched the show a lot growing up, with my mother in particular,' he said. 'So when I ended up at the University of Cambridge, it was a natural thing to try because I thought it would be quite interesting. 'I went about setting up a quiz society at Christ's College to administer the college's participation. 'We ran a two-round selection process, starting with an online quiz that people could complete in their own time. 'Then we invited the 10 best scorers to take part in an in-person round on the buzzer.' Mr Despard (22) earned nine H1s in his Leaving Cert from Sandford Park School in Ranelagh, and was awarded the best individual prize at the BT Young Scientist exhibition in 2020. He is studying molecular biology at Cambridge and has begun a PhD focusing on proteostasis – how cells maintain a balance of making and breaking down proteins – using cryo-electron tomography. His mother, Professor Niamh Moran, is a scientist at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and he fondly recalls watching the quiz show with her on TV over the years. Back home in Portobello, he says his mother has been rallying the fanbase. 'My family was very excited to see me competing in University Challenge, and I think my mother gets more texts of support about it than I do,' he said. ADVERTISEMENT 'My sister and my father were also both quite excited about seeing it. 'Everybody from my team is still in Cambridge, so we've actually been watching it as a team together. There's a lot of interest from the college as well. 'We've been watching it in the college bar, so we've had a decent crowd watching on TV,' he added. To prepare for the show, Mr Despard and the team shared a spreadsheet of over 200 knowledge areas to revise. 'I got to read all of Shakespeare, which I probably wouldn't have done otherwise,' he said. 'And we did a surprising amount of video game revision – they've broadened the question topics in recent years.' In the quarter-finals of the show, there was a question where the answer was GeoGuessr – an online game where you're dropped into a random Google Street View location and have to figure out where you are. Mr Despard said it was a surprise to see it featured in the show, but that University Challenge has been making an effort to bring a slightly wider range of questions in recent years. 'They've included more video game-related questions, so luckily we had people doing revision specifically for that,' he said. In a delightful twist on University Challenge, the semi-finals featured not one but two Dublin-born captains, with Mr Despard going up against Kevin Flanagan, captain of Bristol University. Ultimately, Cambridge triumphed with a score of 220 to 50, earning a place in the final. Mr Flanagan said he was happy to know there would be 'at least one Irish captain' in the final. 'I met Kevin very briefly before the show, because there are other quizzes at universities in the UK where people often end up crossing over,' Mr Despard said. 'But yeah, we subsequently met up. Afterwards, we went to Belfast to meet the Queen's team as a kind of get-together after we had all met in production over the summer.'
